Accenture: warns on full-year margin; shares tumble

(CercleFinance.com) - Accenture said it recorded "strong" results in its second quarter ended 28 February, although the IT consulting giant also warned that it expected its operating margin to remain unchanged this year.


The company's operating income for the quarter rose to 1.3 billion dollars, up 13% relative to the same period last year, with its operating margin reaching 13.4%.

The group - whose digital, cloud and security services together now account for over 55% of its total business - said net revenue rose by 15% to 9.6 billion euros.

Over the quarter, new bookings reached a record of 10.3 billion dollars, with consulting bookings of 5.7 billion dollars and outsourcing bookings of 4.6 billion dollars.

Accenture said it now expects its full-year operating margin to reach 14.8%, in line with the previous fiscal year.

For the record, the company previously expected its operating margin to expand by 10 to 30 basis points on an adjusted basis.

Accenture shares were trading down 6.5% at 153.1 dollars in early morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock has risen by over 23% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 index, which is up about 17%.

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